Colombo: Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the National People's Power (NPP) has taken a strong lead in Sri Lanka's presidential election on Sunday. Votes were cast for the presidential election in Sri Lanka on Saturday. This is the first election in Sri Lanka after the economic crisis of 2022. About 75 percent of the voters exercised their franchise in the presidential election. More than 83 percent voting was recorded in the presidential election held in November 2019. 

Dissanayake at the forefront

In the initial trends received on Sunday, 56-year-old Dissanayake secured 52 percent of the votes while his closest rival and main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa (57) secured 23 percent of the votes. Outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe (75) managed to secure only 16 percent of the votes. Wickremesinghe has not yet accepted defeat, but outgoing Foreign Minister Ali Sabry congratulated Dissanayake on his victory on the social media platform 'X'. Sabry said in a post on 'X', "After a long and difficult campaign, the election results are now clear. I campaigned a lot for President Ranil Wickremesinghe but the people of Sri Lanka have given their verdict and I fully respect their mandate for Anura Kumara Dissanayake. In a democracy, it is important to respect the will of the people and I respect it without hesitation." Senior leader of Premadasa camp Harsha de Silva also congratulated Dissanayake. NPP sources said he would visit the Presidential Secretariat on Sunday to discuss the formalities of transfer of power. 

The issue of economy remained at the center

Analysts say that Dissanayake's victory is unexpected. However, his victory was predicted even before the election. Dissanayake's NPP got only three percent votes in the last election. Sri Lanka's crisis proved to be an opportunity for Dissanayake, who got a lot of support for his resolve to change the 'corrupt' political culture of this island country. This time the minority Tamil issue was not on the agenda. Instead, the issue of the country's collapsing economy and bringing it back on track was at the center.